Where does the formula “1 pound equals 3500 calories” come from? Zoe Harcombe checked with all the major British organizations including the British Dietetic Association. The best answer, or worst depending on how one perceives this topic, was, “We don’t know.” Some of the other questions one sees in a list towards the beginning of the book are: Does energy in equal energy out? Does the law of thermodynamics apply to humans? Can you prove saturated fat causes heart disease? How does exercise relate to weight loss or gain?

When dealing with weight loss the public is bombarded by misinformation concerning calories which are a measurement of energy. According to Harcombe when you see the statement, “energy in equals energy out” you are getting a misapplication of the laws of thermodynamics. The first law doesn’t state energy in must equal energy out; it states that energy in a closed system is neither created nor destroyed.

The calorie theory, i.e., counting calories for weight control, was tested in the Minnesota Starvation Experiment. Thirty six healthy men participated in the study, with the goal being to reduce their weight by 25% in 24 weeks. A control period was utilized to figure how many calories were needed to maintain weight at a specific activity level. During the starvation period of the experiment, while trying to maintain the specified activity level, the participant’s diets were cut by 1640 calories. At this point the weight loss didn’t meet the researcher’s goal, so the participant’s calories were cut even further. According to the “Gold Standard Formula” promoted by so many so-called experts, “1 pound equals 3500 calories”, each participant should have lost 78 pounds; by week 20 all reached a plateau, and the average weight lost was 37 pounds.

Once the men were allowed to eat, they couldn’t get enough. Even when they were stuffed, the men still complained of hunger. None of the men had eating disorders prior to the experiment; it was clear according to the Minnesota Starvation Experiment, that no one can tolerate calorie deprivation over an extended period of time.

The people who do research as generalist/specialists in the area of obesity (Barry Groves, Gary Taubes, Sally Fallon Morell are the forerunners) have all come to the same conclusion – we must eat real food and not processed food. Man is the only chronically sick species on the planet and the only one eating his own food. (I would add that we have also given our pets obesity, diabetes and other modern illness, by feeding them our processed junk ). “Eat food as nature intends us to eat it” is surely classic common sense – but government, dietitians and doctors tell us instead to “Base our meals on starchy foods” and they have developed the Eatbadly Plate (I refuse to call it Eatwell), which could not be more different to what we have evolved to eat. (Do take a look at this plate and see for yourself sugar, cornflakes, weetabix, white flour, bagels, white pasta, sugared baked beans, fruit in syrup, Battenberg cake, sweets, coca-cola and so on. No wonder Kellogg’s sponsor the British Dietetic Association obesity conference!)

“The Obesity Epidemic” has a very simple message; everything you think you know about eating right and weight loss, is way off the mark. With a mound of references to support her well stated arguments, Zoe expounds the truth while dissecting the dietary BS promulgated by industry, health agencies, doctors and dieticians. There is no doubt that the world is experiencing an obesity epidemic and it’s a shame that money not evidence based research is guiding our behavior. Anyone interested in the correct natural way to a healthy body, needs to read this book.

I am a voracious reader and I only consider several of the many, many book I’ve read to be as powerful and life altering as Maximum Achievement by Brian Tracy. A culmination of 25 years of research and thousands of hours of seminars, Maximum Achievement is a “How to” guide to better every aspect of your life.

You will learn that success starts on the inside. Brian Tracy lists the first of “The Seven Ingredients of Success”, as peace of mind. When you live in harmony with your highest values and convictions and are living a perfectly balanced life, you will enjoy peace of mind. Without this first ingredient nothing is possible.

The following six ingredients build on one another and all have to do with your inner self. He explains that the seven ingredients are like targets to aim at. When you know exactly what you want, and achieve a positive, optimistic outlook, you can begin to unlock your inner powers to succeed.

The system contained within Maximum Achievement is straightforward and simple, yet profoundly practical. Practicing what you learn in this book will allow you to enjoy greater peace of mind, better health, improved personal relationships, and greater financial freedom. Your life will improve starting with your inner self.

First, life is hard. It always has been and it always will be. It’s never been any different for you or me or anyone else. The good thing is that if you accept this basic truth, life somehow becomes a little easier because you don’t suffer so much from feelings of frustration and injustice.

Second, everything you are or ever will be is up to you. You are where you are today because that is where you have chosen to be. You are always free to choose your actions, or inactions, and your life today is the sum total of your choices, good or bad. If you want your future to be different, you have to make better choices.

Third, and perhaps most important, you can learn anything you need to learn to become anyone you want to become, to achieve anything you want to achieve. There are very few limitations and most of them are on the inside, not the outside.

Nutritional and Physical Degeneration is one of the most ground-breaking books ever written on the link between nutrition and health. Dr. Weston A. Price, a dentist from Cleveland, became very disturbed by what he saw in his patients. He started to see a link between the decay he found in the mouths of his patients and pathologies found elsewhere in the body like diabetes, arthritis, osteoporosis, gastrointestinal complaints, and more. Dr. Price also found that crowded, crooked teeth were becoming more and more common, along with facial deformities like overbites, narrow faces, lack of well defined cheek bones, and underdevelopment of the nose. Dr. Price did not believe these problems to be in any way normal; He believed they were the result of poor nutrition. The worse a person?s diet was the more decay he found in their mouth. The more decay a person had in their mouth, the higher the rate of pathologies in other areas of the body.

More than 70 years ago Dr. Price decided to search the world for primitive people who lived entirely on indigenous foods. His travels took him from islands in the South Seas to Alaska to Africa and many places in between. He visited Australian Aborigines, Swiss villages, Eskimos, traditional American Indians, Amoazonian Indians, African tribes, and more. Dr. Price and his wife Florence traveled for ten years during the 1920’s and 30’s when groups of people completely isolated from civilization could be found.

Throughout his travels, Dr. Price kept a record of his findings with pictures and detailed assessments. What he found, to be called astounding, is an understatement. Dr, Price discovered that primitive people untouched by civilization, who subsided on a diet of indigenous food, had outstanding physical development with little to no dental problems, heart disease, diabetes, or any other diseases we know believe to be a normal consequence of life.

Dr. Price?s findings were not surprising to other investigators and explorers. However, the excepted explanation at the time was that primitive people were ?racially pure? and that the maladies we see in civilization were due to ?race mixing?. This theory was untenable to Dr. Price who found that the individuals in groups he studied who abandoned their traditional diets for foods provided by traders or missionaries, or who moved to a more civilized area were found to develop tooth decay and degenerative conditions.

The diets of these primitive groups of people were vastly different. Some were mostly cooked food while in others most of the food was consumed raw including animal sources. Some diets were based on sea food, others on domestic animals and others on wild game. Some diets were based on dairy while others consumed a variety of fruits and vegetables and grains.

The common thread between all the groups Dr. Price investigated was none of them contained any refined devitalized foods like white sugar, flour, pasteurized or skim milk, and refined or hydrogenated vegetable oils. All the diets contained animal foods of some type and some salt. Dr. Price analyzed the primitive diets and found they all contained four times the amount of water soluble vitamins and minerals, and ten times the amount of fat soluble vitamins compared to the modern American diet.

Unfortunately, Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, the permanent record of his travels, is nonexistent to today?s modern medical community. This book is more important to our health and welfare today than it was 60 years ago. Our food supply, if it could be classified as food, is devoid of almost all nutritive value. We need to incorporate the fundamentals of primitive nutrition and return to nutrient dense whole food. We need to get back to local farming and turn away from manmade supermarket garbage that is destroying our health.

Ron Schmid, the author, is a naturopathic physician and farmer. A graduate of MIT, he has served as Clinical Director and Chief Medical Officer at the University Of Bridgeport College Of Naturopathic Medicine. This book is a must for anyone who is interested in whole natural foods. Milk, raw milk that is, has been referred to as nature’s most perfect food because of it numerous health benefits.

The debate of raw versus pasteurized milk is overwhelmingly over safety. We’ve been told over and over again for decades in order for milk to be safe to consume, it needs to be pasteurized. Could it be that people extolling its benefits for thousands of years had no idea how dangerous it was? According to Ron Schmid, we should have the same right to whole raw dairy products in order to reap the benefits our ancestors had.

How much disease attributed to raw milk was actually caused by raw milk? In the early 1900’s when both types, raw and pasteurized coexisted, there was significant controversy within the public health establishment. Official numbers concluded that raw milk was responsible for 10 – 40 percent of all typhoid fever. One paper concluded .221 of one percent of typhoid fever, scarlet fever and diphtheria in the entire U.S. was attributable to milk. Looks to me like more unbiased research should have been done.

One thing we do know is that chronic diseases attributed to cattle have been effectively eradicated, which obviously makes the milk produced by these cattle more safe. Another is that many other contaminants such as Salmonella and Campylobacter originate in feces. These organisms cause over 2 million cases per year in the U.S. In an 8 year period, only 700 cases were attributed to raw milk consumption. The total number of food-borne illness from all causes is now 73 million per year. Schimid points out the obvious, that milk is not uniquely hazardous and should not be treated as such. He makes a strong case for treating raw milk production and like another food. Why can we eat raw fish but not raw milk?

So how much of a problem was raw milk? No matter what the answer was, raw milk became a problem. A large push by commercial interests to influence politicians and market the virtues of pasteurized milk occurred in the early 1900’s. Unfortunately, the public’s perception of raw milk went sour and so did sales. Never mind the fact that the dairy industry was more interested in mass production and shelf life than health.

It has become very clear as with many other products in our food supply money, not health is the deciding factor. If you are at all interested in learning about the benefits of raw milk, its history and how you can get involved in making raw milk available to all, read this book, and visit www.westonaprice.com.

Upon opening this book I was impressed; the foreword was written by Jack La Lanne a pioneer of health and fitness. I watched The Jack La Lanne Show as a kid; it was the first fitness show on TV; I’ve been involved in health and fitness since. This is a man who on his 70th birthday swam a mile while shackled to 70 boats carrying 70 people. He attributes his outstanding health, now at 95 years young, to clean living.

Jack La Lanne was the first well known advocate for deriving health and strength from ?eating clean?, which is the premise of The Eat Clean Diet for Men. This book is an easy to follow prescription to change your health for the better with no carb or calorie counting. It’s loaded with helpful tools like: creating a game plan for grocery shopping to ensure healthy choices, eating on the road, and eating right while dining out.

There are only two points made in the book that I firmly disagree with. The first is the recommendation to avoid all saturated fats. The fact is, these fats are very healthy and a necessary part of the human diet; saturated fats have nothing to do with obesity or cardiovascular disease as the media and medical community has lead us to believe. Second and probably most important, soy milk is on one of the grocery lists and included in a few recipes. Soy?s deleterious effects are indisputable and I?ve written about them several times. Among other problems with soy, twenty five grams of soy product per day is enough to disrupt your thyroid function, which is at odds with becoming leaner and healthier. Just use skim milk.

Outside of the above two concerns, I enjoyed reading The Eat Clean Diet for Men. Robert Kennedy and Tosca Reno make eating clean as fail proof as possible. I recommend this book not only to the average person just trying to lose that extra weight and improve their health, but to the experience fitness buff as well. I?m certain that anyone who reads The Eat Clean Diet for Men will take away something from this book to improve their lives.